Dec

Public Safety Request

A Columbia student got in touch with Bwog with a request for help: the student was attacked by a group of young men Sunday afternoon, around 4:15 p.m., at the corner of 114th and Broadway. The student spoke to a fellow student who witnessed the attack afterwards, but, in the post-attack shock, did not get the witness’s name. Anyone who saw the attack is asked to email [email protected] to get in touch with the victim.

UPDATE (2:05 a.m.): The witness has contacted us, and we’ve passed along her email address to the victim (who declined to share further details about the incident with Bwog). As for Public Safety’s role, they have video of the assault, and are currently investigating. No word just yet on when an alert will be sent out.

What the hell is wrong with public safety? Why are they even there if they are so ineffective in stopping crime within their IMMEDIATE vicinity??? There was also an a student attacked a couple weeks ago 116th and Claremont in the afternoon---that's right under the safety officers look out box. W.T.F. I hope you're listening, Columbia

A large percentage of the muggings around here end in the Police, often with Public Safety's help, catching the guys. Other than that, I'm not sure exactly what we can expect public safety to do. The area was under video surveillance, the area is patrolled by public safety. We could triple the number of safety officers patrolling, but they can't be everywhere, and muggers are only going to mug people when public safety is NOT there.

As other people are pointing out, living in an urban area (especially right next to a pretty poor neighborhood), you have to expect a certain amount of crime. We are very lucky that so few of these muggings and attacks are seriously violent (meaning people ending up hospitalized/dead rather than bruised up a little).

What the F***!! Why am I not hearing about these incidents anywhere else? This is scary stuff and seems to be happening more and more frequently. Is my sense of security in the nabe false??? Should I be wayyy more careful than I am????

And where is security when we need them????

This is scary stuff, and if M'side Heights is getting that bad again, I sure know I would not be sending my kids here. Ivy or not.

Can you give us details about what happened? I understand there may be some discretion necessary here, but if you don't provide the identity of the student victim, maybe you can fill us in on what happened in the attack?

Btw, 4:15pm on a SUNDAY? There should be tens of witnesses I would think (not just on the street but also from Carman, Hogan & Broadway). I hope the victim is okay

I understand that some discretion may be necessary here and the victim may wish to protect his or her privacy, but surely there are some details that can be revealed here, no? What kind of attack? Motive (theft, sexual assault, discriminatory violence)? How many guys? Columbia-affiliates or not? I understand some of it may be speculative info that will later be amended when all the facts have been sorted out, but I'd still rather hear the rumors now than wait a week for the email from public safety.

I hope that the victim of the crime is physically okay and recovering from this trauma.

The imagery is wonderful: "Standing back up, the victim ran from her assailant and took shelter in a Public Safety car while a Public Safety officer chased after her attacker.

Eyewitness Scott Maxwell, CC ‘11, said that the Public Safety officer chased the man past the Carman gates across to the east side of Broadway near Nussbaum & Wu, all the while being taunted by the assailant."

robberies are part of most American communities. The only recent robbery that has ended in serious injury was that time that guy ran away into the middle of the street and got hit by a car. In any urban area, you are likely to get robbed once in your life or so. Just pay attention and don't get lost in your iPhone, and you'll be fine. Ladies should probably not be out alone on the latenight, though...

really? I don't care who you are or what you think, that's really strange. It's also pretty scary. Hey, Columbia (or Barnard since you guys read Bwog) do something about this already! 114 & broadway is two blocks down from the Columbia broadway entrance! Surely that's close enough for you guys to care.